The Works of Andrew Perron (and Selected Others)

"OK, that's enough of that," said a voice from the distance. A pale,
dark-haired woman appeared on stage. She wasn't dressed like a net.hero,
but in this room full of gaudily dressed superbeings she held herself up
like she owned the place.

"Well, I guess it's been a while since we had a good crisis," said
Fearless Leader. "What is it this time?"

"Well," said Lydia, "So there's this cosmic dictator wannabe called
LAN.os, who's gathering an army of space mooks to ravage the universe.
You know the kind."

Fearless Leader nodded. "Sounds like a typical one-note parody villain
to me. We can take him easy."

"Yeah, but that's not the problem. The problem is he's going after the
Kubrik's Kube. That's spelled with a K. Don't ask me, I didn't make it.
It's an artifact that's as old as your universe, maybe older. It's a
sort of puzzle box thing. If you can solve the puzzle, it gives you
enlightenment, whatever the hell that is. Basically, wherever it shows
up, things go wrong. Even when they go right. I guess "enlightenment"'s
just not for everyone."

[ excerpted from JUST ANOTHER MULTI-WRITER CASCADE THAT WILL PROBABLY
NEVER HAVE AN ENDING #1.NOW (#4) part B ]

———

Now: Psychovant the Duck makes his move!

———

"Hooray! She's gone!"

"I can still see you, Duck."

"Gah!"

"Oh, relax. Unless you're going to destroy the universe, I just don't
care."

"Well then! Have a nice day!"

"Whatever."

The ultimate-powered Goth chick from the other universe disappeared.
The cyborg demon duck from a third universe cheered. "Yahoo! Open
season on LNH Cascades!"

———

The duck was Psychovant, known in his own manner across the universes.
He stopped on a convenient asteroid, pulled out an impossibly large
whiteboard from his satchel, pulled out a "Graduate" mortar cap, put it
on, and started making notes and equations.

"Now, this Kube will be near some parody villain. And the villain will
be related to some Writer, whichever one is angstier and more likely to
write now... Got it!"

Psychovant pulled out a job application, put on a business suit,
disappeared – and reappeared on the Looniverse Planet of Amateur
Contract Law, inside an office. "'Scuse me, this is important so your
secretary passed me in. I'd like the job of Kube Konsultant."

An amateur lawyer looked up. "Okay, but you must first defeat... the
Amateur Lawyer! What are your qualifications?"

"Well... I know a Kube when I see one!" The lawyer's desk had a sort
of cube full of cubes sitting there. Psychovant grabbed it.

"We use simple rules here. We're proud of that on our planet. If you
can put all the same color on each side, you win."

"Just that?"

"Just that."

"Well... Yahoo!" Psychovant grabbed the Kube with one wing, and with
the other flourished a paintbrush coated with white paint from his
satchel. Swipe Swipe Swipe! Toss! Swipe Swipe Swipe! "... I win!"

"Uh, that's nice. But I'm afraid we never intended the rules to be
that simple."